(1) Field
The disclosed subject matter generally relates to martial arts trainers. In particular, the disclosed subject matter is directed to an automated striking and blocking trainer with quantitative feedback.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Traditional martial arts training methods have relied heavily on the punching bag. Standard punching bags are simple. They consist of a sack, filled with some deformable yet resistant material, and kept aloft by a support structure. They are designed to receive the blows of a pugilist's assault without permanent deformation. However, punching bags are low-tech. The punching bag doesn't provide feedback to the user.
The traditional punching bag has a leather, canvas, or synthetic surface covering an interior bladder. This bladder is filled with either a synthetic material or grain to give the bag its shape and only allow for slight deformation upon impact. In this way the bag provides resistance without injuring the fighter's body. The bag is suspended from a system of hooks attached to a chain or ball bearing swivel. These bags come in two variations, the heavy bag and the speed bag. The speed bag is a lightweight ball shaped target that recoils easily and is used to increase the fighter's hand speed. The heavy bag is a large bag used to raise a fighter's strength and endurance. Unlike the speed bag, the size of the heavy bag and its resilience also makes it an effective target for kicks.
Outside of the western world, the martial artists of Asia and the Pacific Islands areas use martial arts training stands that are unique to the styles that spawned them. The Okinawan Makiwara is a tapered hardwood board varying in height and rigidity that is half buried in the ground, and the top portion is wrapped in hemp rope. One of the most interesting aspects of the Makiwara is that it returns to its original position after it is struck, immediately setting itself up for the fighter's next strike. Another martial arts tool is the Mok Yan Jong. Wooden “arms” are placed at the most common angles of an opponent's limbs and stick out from a central round wooden post “body.” The “body” is attached to a support structure with flexible horizontal boards that simulate the resistance of a human opponent. As opposed to the heavy bag and the Makiwara, the Mok Yan Jong is used to condition a fighter's limbs and muscle speed to develop blocking technique.
Traditional training devices lack the ability to return quantifiable feedback. Currently, a user must rely on a partner or instructor to subjectively gauge any improvement in a fighter's speed, power, or reaction time. If sensing and recording elements were incorporated into a training bag, then the fighter would have quantifiable data that could be used to provide instantaneous feedback and be used to track progress over time. Used in conjunction with a digital display, this data would be provided back to the user in real time.
Traditional martial arts training methods have a limited amount of simulation. A heavy punching bag can simulate the weight of an opponent, and the Mok Yan Jong can simulate the points at which a fighter is most likely to strike. But there are never any variations in the interaction. It is difficult to create a true fight simulation without creating a physical human analogue. By breaking down the scenario of a stand up fight, two elements can be derived: moments when the fighter must defend and opportunities to attack.
There are various knows martial arts training devices. One device includes a traditional punching bag on a weighted stand on the ground. A standing bag is significant because it is the basic platform position for many of the products which are in direct competition. Another device uses LEDs for interaction, through the placement of light up scoring zones. In function, it works like a pugilistic version of Milton Bradley's Simon product. While this device does provide limited interaction, the user can only practice strikes, and not blocks. Additionally, it does not provide any form of quantifiable feedback.
One device attempts to provide some useful feedback. This device has a sensor imbedded within a striking surface that is then attached to a traditional punching bag. A wire harness runs from the sensor to a computation and digital display unit. It can provide reaction time calculations by emitting an audible tone and then tracking how long it takes for the fighter to hit the target. It also determines the accuracy of a strike by relating the strike to the center of the sensor pad. But there are problems with this system such as an inability to read the very small display, an exposed wire harnesses, limited striking area, durability issues, lack of force feedback, and keeping the striking surface fixed to one spot.
Another device that offers feedback information includes a sensor that connects to a computational unit with a wire harness. But unlike other known devices, the sensor can supposedly be placed anywhere on the bag. That is because the sensor is an accelerometer. The accelerometer is used to actually gage the force of a strike. But since the mass of the striking surface is unknown, actual force applied by the fighter to the striking surface cannot be given. Instead, the feedback given is a “score” which is related to the ‘Gs’ of acceleration seen by the sensor.
Known devices have various problems. First, the display on the many devices is very small, and could only be read by the fighter if they held it or stopped after each strike to read it. Second, glitches in the software cause the display to go blank, not record or save data, and not clear previous data when requested. The menus of many devices are not intuitive and even the instruction manual are often confusing. The sensor itself was occasionally limited in its ability to detect strikes. In devices that only employ one sensor, the manufacturers suggest that the user place the sensor at the top of the punching bag. The problem with this placement is that it understates the force of some strikes on the bag. Any strike outside a one square foot square area surrounding the sensor produces inconsistent results with similar strikes within the sensor zone. This makes the rest of the bag useless for recording data and limits the feedback abilities of such a device.
Another problem common to known devices is that they judge speed and reaction time by having the player hit the surface upon hearing an auditory beep. This misses the point of conditioning a fighter to react to visual stimuli, which is required during an actual fight. Repetitive training conditions a fighter's muscle and brain to react to visual stimuli. Many conditioned fighters have been recorded as having a reaction time (from visual stimuli to physical reaction) of a fifth of a second. Masters in the martial arts of been recorded at one twelfth of a second. Due to the slower speed of sound and the inherent differences in the brain's sensory of sound and vision, am auditory beep is not a reliable measure of the true reaction time of a fighter.